Partnership to Advance Tribal Health

Stratis Health has a longstanding commitment to improving care for American Indian and Alaska Native people who commonly experience lower health status when compared with other Americans. They are at high risk of health care inequities due to historical and ongoing structural and social drivers of health such as disproportionately high poverty rates, impacts of cultural and individual trauma, and geographical and environmental challenges.

The Partnership to Advance Tribal Health (PATH), funded by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), is a strategic partnership of organizations committed to improving health care for American Indians. Stratis Health, Comagine Health, and Mountain-Pacific Quality Health collaboratively lead this work which is focused on supporting 24 Indian Health Services (IHS) hospitals across the country. The goal is to improve health care quality and address the unique health care issues of the populations IHS hospitals serve by implementing best practices and providing performance improvement training and coaching.

Actions

Stratis Health staff serve in national and local leadership roles and provide technical assistance in the areas of quality improvement, culture of safety, and health equity. In addition, Stratis Health staff provide analytic support for facility level and IHS-wide data and develop and facilitate national leadership learning and action network sessions where hospitals learn and practice leadership skills, share experiences and promising practices, and build relationships with colleagues in other IHS facilities.

In Minnesota, Stratis Health staff members work with IHS to develop leaders; promote teamwork; provide training to foster a culture of improvement and patient safety; adopt and spread clinical best practices, and obtain and retain hospital accreditation and patient-centered medical home (PCMH) certification. Hospital-specific projects include:

• Cass Lake Indian Health Service (hospital, emergency department, clinic, dental, physical therapy) – Cass Lake, MN
  • Provide ongoing quality, safety, and team-based care training and technical assistance
  • Support delivery of safe culturally sensitive care
  • Collaborate with IHS, Tribal Health, Tribal Human Services, and other community partners to improve community health

• Red Lake Indian Health Service (hospital, emergency department, clinic, dental, behavioral health) – Red Lake, MN:
  • Provide ongoing coaching and assistance for facility quality and safety leaders
  • Provide ongoing quality, safety, and team-based care training and technical assistance for accreditation survey readiness and achievement of PCMH certification 

We make lives better by…

Improving health and health care for American Indians and Alaska Native people. Our work is accomplished through:

• Grounding all work in appropriate cultural contexts and understanding of historical trauma
• Including patients, families, and Tribal communities in quality improvement activities
• Promoting teamwork and patient safety through Just Culture, TeamSTEPPS, and quality improvement training
• Improving care transitions by building networks within communities and across the nation to provide a forum for sharing best practices on overcoming barriers and using standardized processes
• Coordinating and collaborating with local behavioral health initiatives related to suicide prevention and substance use disorder
• Enhancing emergency preparedness and response
• Fostering opportunities to share best practices and learn from IHS hospital leaders across the nation
• Providing guidance through improvement projects and processes